concerts

Britney Spears performed two shows this weekend to promote her new album Femme Fatale. The first show, held at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Friday night, was technically a “secret” show which Spears tweeted about at the last minute on Friday, telling her fans “You’re all invited. Be there or be square bitch!” She also performed in San Francisco on Sunday. The Sunday show was sponsored by Good Morning America and part of it (the one with the least amount of crotch shots, we assume) will be broadcast on the morning show on Tuesday. Check out our gallery below for photos of her San Francisco show, and her live performance of “Hold It Against Me” after the jump.

When you’re used to getting paid millions of dollars to sing any three songs off “Butterfly,” maybe you don’t always take the time to find out exactly who is forking over all that cash. So we understand how it could possibly be that Mariah Carey didn’t know she was playing a Gaddafi concert. Whoops! “I was naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for. I feel horrible and embarrassed to have participated in this mess,” Carey said in a statement today. Look, are we really going to blame Mimi for this? If a mysterious figure offered to pay off our student loans, you think we’d turn it down? Well, we would now since, you know, it’s almost certainly money from a dictator.

Not that every celeb is so in the dark about the people sitting in the front row; Jennifer Lopez turned down a Gaddafi concert to the tune of $2 million. Either way, it looks like Carey has to humble herself before the judging eyes of society, as humble as an eight-month-pregnant woman wearing five-inch Louis Vuittons can be. “Ultimately we as artists are to be held accountable,” Mariah admitted. “Going forward, this is a lesson for all artists to learn from. We need to be more aware and take more responsibility regardless of who books our shows.” So is Carey going to donate her Gaddafi money like Beyonce or Nelly Furtado? “Mariah has and continues to donate time, money, and countless hours of personal service both here and abroad,” Carey’s rep Cindi Berger said, which we take to mean not really. Looks like Mariah has to start looking at who’s signing her checks; next thing you know she’ll be hitting the high notes in “Honey” to applause from Darth Vader and the Imperial Army.

We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get bodied with a clear conscience after Wikileaks revealed that Gaddafi paid for concerts by huge artists like Beyonce, but luckily we just found out that Beyoncé donated her Gaddafi money to Haiti. “All monies paid to Beyoncé for her performance at a private party at Nikki Beach St. Barts on New Year’s Eve 2009, including the commissions paid to her booking agency, were donated to the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, over a year ago,” Beyonce’s rep Yvette Noel-Schure told The Huffington Post. “Once it became known that the third party promoter was linked to the Gaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause.” Girl, we can see your halo. Not that donating a dictator’s millions automatically gets you a halo, but you know. It’s a step in the right direction.

Reports of various superstars such as Usher, Mariah Carey and B herself playing for the Gaddafi family came to light after Nelly Furtado tweeted that she’d donate her money to charity. At least we can be sure that’s a huge chunk of change that won’t end up in Gaddafi’s bank account. Or sitting unused with the other millions in Beyonce’s.

Have you ever wanted something so bad, you just wanted to destroy public property when it didn’t come through? Was that thing ever a Deftones concert? Deftones fans rioted in Thailand last night after the band canceled a concert more than an hour after it was supposed to start. If this was Cleveland in 1998, we could totally understand it, but in 2011? Outraged fans waiting at Bangkok’s Thunderdome arena took their burning need to hear “Teething” out on nearby vendor tents, smashing bottles and throwing chairs as the crowd laughed and cheered. Hmmm, would we be wrong to think this had less to do with disappointment with the Deftones, and more to do with some people’s desire to destroy a beer garden? It’s a fine line.

Probably realizing that they had offended 99% of their remaining fan base, Deftones issued an apology on their website. “Due to local power issues that threatened the safety of the band and their fans, Deftones were forced to cancel their show last night at the Thunderdome in Bangkok, Thailand,” the statement reads. “Deftones would like to apologize to those that were inconvenienced and hope to return to Thailand in the near future. Refund info to follow soon.” Cops arrived to break up the scrum, but no arrests were made. In the meantime, we hope warnings have been issues to MudVayne, A Perfect Circle and System Of A Down. Just because no one remembers you in the U.S. does not mean you aren’t driving people wild overseas.

Say what you want about Katy Perry: she’s never boring to look at it…or smell, apparently. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Katy Perry discusses her California Dreams world tour starting February 20. “It’s going to smell like you’re in cotton candy heaven. It’s a fun little nuance,” Katy explains. “I am a woman of detail, and you will be seeing that — even down to the 15 outfit changes I’m doing.” As if smelling like a clown’s boudoir wasn’t enough, the Firework singer will also be throwing a few slabs of beef on the BBQ…or into the audience; it’s unclear. “I have this whole thing in my show that is about candy and cupcakes and meat. It’s both really sweet and shocking, but not in a sexual way,” she reveals. Well, maybe not to you, Katy, but everybody’s different!

While Katy might have plans to dance out in a onesie made entirely of honey-baked ham, she’s only going to shake that bacon, not eat it. “After this interview I’m going to have a nice healthy breakfast. I’m on a meal plan, which absolutely sucks,” Perry, who’s gearing up to release the video for her single E.T. as well as perform at the Grammys on Feb. 13, told her interviewer. “But on Sundays I get to have a cheat day where I go buck wild and eat In-N-Out Burger.” No wonder Perry has beef on the brain! Somebody need to tell her to calm down and eat a Lunchable already, or else she’s going to start wearing Lady Gaga‘s meat dress. And no, we don’t mean just to awards ceremonies.

Like Whitney Houston, Elton John and approximately one billion other artists before him, Usher canceled tour dates in Europe due to a “upper respiratory illness.” His rep explains, “After consultation with doctors, he has been advised to reschedule the upcoming dates in order to get the rest he needs to ensure a complete recovery.” Usher hit Twitter to apologize, saying “I deeply regret having to reschedule the shows. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I have caused my fans. My fans are the best in the world and I am looking forward to getting better so that I can give them the show they deserve.”

Even if you aren’t an Usher fan (and really, why aren’t you?) the video of the singer breaking down in Germany is absolutely heart-wrenching. The Thursday concert at Berlin’s 02 Arena was actually rescheduled from Wednesday due to his illness. Unfortunately, despite pushing his performance back a day NAACP Image Award nominee Usher was unable to sing, wobbling on his feet before apologizing and walking off stage. The audience doesn’t know if they should boo him or cheer him on, so of course, they do both. This isn’t the first time the “OMG” singer had a terrible concert experience; it was just the first where Usher didn’t have at least get an apologetic female fan sitting on his lap.

Say what you will about Lady Gaga‘s meat bikini or her always quotable interviews, you have to love her for being devoted to her fans and just wanting them to get along. Gaga even went so far as to cut the music during her show in D.C on Tuesday when she spotted two audience members hitting each other. After proclaiming that the only kind of fighting allowed in her presence was “fake monster fighting”, she made sure to turn all eyes back on her by asking the audience “Do you think I’m sexy?” If only all childish fights had such sexy referees who pose like a dominatrix while they yell at you.

Lady Gaga claims that everything she does, she does for her fans, they inspire her so. Looks like the inspiration is mutual, as skin-baring legions of Gaga-philes hit the streets of New York last night wearing copies of outfits she’s made famous, on their way to see her concert at Madison Square Garden. Quite the week for Gaga, having taken over Facebook with over 11 million fans, more than even Barack Obama, and now inspiring them to dress like her. It’s like she’s commander in chief of her own Gaga army, and they’re all ready to fight with hair-phones and lucite bubble dresses.

Rihanna kicked off her “Last Girl On Earth” Tour this weekend in Vancouver, and all we have to say is wow. There are more insane costume changes than a Sex And The City movie in this show, and we’re bringing you a gallery of the most amazing, jaw-dropping ones we’ve found. The girl rocked everything from a Tron-inspired bodysuit to a glowing, LED-lit ball gown.

With Ke$ha as her opening act, we’re thinking this might be the only tour that can rival Lady Gaga‘s in crazy costumes and star power this summer. Check out all RiRi’s looks below and let us know what you think of the wardrobe spectacle, does it add to the experience or detract from the music?

The Post claims that throughout the entire show, Love’s assistant Lisa stood center stage filming Love on an iPhone, obstructing the audience’s view of the show. When the audience objected, Love replied “F*ck you, she’s with me.” She forgot the words to songs, played the same song twice and then she brought a fan on stage to asked her “Do you really like rock music? Because you’re African-American. That would be like me being into Lil Wayne.” So that’s awkward. Oh, and super racist. Seriously, WTF?

And the entire set was over three hours. We’re used to Courtney being crazy in public but we at least hope that she wouldn’t bring it so hard to her paying fans. For the full review check out the Post‘s Click Track blog.